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Poetry

Poetry refers to literary works written in verse, in particular, verse writing of high quality, great

beauty, emotional sincerity or intensity, or profound insight.

Poetry Portfolio

Your task is to write a collection of short poems.

Write the drafts in your English notebook or on the assigned sheets.

Revise and rewrite your drafts as needed

Compile the final drafts and design your portfolio into a booklet (see attached sample)

Include a relevant illustration for every poem in the portfolio.

You will write:

3 diamante poems

3 cinquains

3 haikus

2 limericks

1 concrete poem

1 acrostic poem

Diamante Poem A diamante poem is a short diamond –shaped poem. The diamante was invented by an American poet named Iris McClellan Tiedt in 1969. There are just a few rules in writing a diamante: 1. Diamantes are seven lines long. 2. The first and last lines have just one word.

The second and sixth lines have two words. The third and fifth lines have three words. And the fourth line has four words.

3. Lines 1, 4, and 7 have nouns. Lines 2 and 6 have adjectives. Lines 3 and 5 have verbs.

Noun

Adjective, Adjective

-ing Verb, -ing Verb, -ing Verb

Noun, Noun, Noun, Noun

-ing Verb, -ing Verb, -ing Verb

Adjective Adjective

Noun

There are two types of diamante poems: the synonym and the antonym.

SYNONYM DIAMANTE

In this diamante, the words ―Monsters‖ and ―Creatures‖ mean the same thing, so they are synonyms.

Monsters Evil, Spooky

Howling, Shrieking, Wailing Ghosts, Vampires, Goblins, Witches

Flying, Scaring, Terrifying Creepy, Crawly

Creatures

ANTONYM DIAMANTE

In this diamante, you might say that the words ―Cat‖ and ―Dog‖ are opposites, or ―antonyms,‖ so this is an antonym diamante.

Cat Gentle, Sleepy

Purring, Meowing, Scratching Whiskers, Fur, Collar, Leash

Barking, Licking, Digging Slobbery, Playful

Dog

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Getting Started

To start writing a diamante, you first need to decide what thing you want to write about. The reason you want to pick a thing is that your first and last lines need to be nouns. Then, decide if you would want to write a synonym or antonym diamante poem.

In the top half of the poem – lines 2 and 3 – your adjectives and verbs should be words that have to do with line 1, like this:

Sun Fiery, Yellow

Burning, Blinding, Exploding

On line 4, the line in the middle of the poem, the first two nouns should be related to the noun on line 1, and the last two nouns should be related to the noun on line 7, like this:

Flame, Light, Night, Crescent

In the bottom half of the poem – lines 5 and 6 – your adjectives and verbs should be related to the noun on line 7, like this:

Shining, Orbiting, Reflecting Cold, Silver

Moon

When you put everything together, you’ll end up with something like this:

Sun Fiery, Yellow

Burning, Blinding, Exploding Flame, Light, Night, Crescent Shining, Orbiting, Reflecting

Cold, Silver Moon

Cinquain A cinquain is a five-line poem that was invented by Adelaide Crapsey. She was an American poet who took her inspiration from Japanese haiku and tanka. A collection of poems, titled Verse, was published in 1915 and included 28 cinquains. Cinquains are particularly vivid in their imagery and are meant to convey a certain mood or emotion.

There are three cinquain patterns:

Syllables Per Line

Line one has two syllables

Line two has four syllables

Line three has six syllables

Line four has eight syllables

Line five has two syllables

Listen...

With faint dry sound,

Like steps of passing ghosts,

The leaves, frost-crisp'd, break from the trees

And fall.

Words Per Line

Line one: One word

Line two: Two words

Line three: Three words

Line four: Four words

Dinosaurs

Lived once,

Long ago, but

Only dust and dreams

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Line five: One word Remain

Pattern 3

Line1: A noun

Line2: Two adjectives

Line 3: Three -ing words

Line 4: A phrase

Line 5: Another word for the

noun

Spaghetti

Messy, spicy

Slurping, sliding, falling

Between my plate and mouth

Delicious

Haiku

A haiku is an unrhymed three-line poem. It is based on a traditional Japanese poetic form. Though there are different ways to write haiku, the traditional pattern in English is to write the first and last lines with five syllables each, and the middle line with seven syllables. In other words, the pattern of syllables looks like this:

Line 1: 5 syllables Line 2: 7 syllables Line 3: 5 syllables

Most often, haiku poems are about seasons or nature, though you can write your own haiku about anything you like. One thing to keep in mind is that the last line of a haiku usually makes an observation. That is, the third line points out something about the subject you are writing about.

HAIKU ABOUT SEASONS First you will want to select a season: spring, summer, fall, rainy season or winter

The cold, stinging rain

falls in sheets like a drab drape

the sky is swept clean

HAIKU ABOUT NATURE If you decide to write a haiku about nature, you will have many more subjects to choose from. You could write about animals, plants, the sky, the ocean, streams, the wind, and so on. Start by selecting a topic, and then decide what you want to say; what observation you want to make about it.

Above the meadow

a skylark, singing, flies high

High into silence

FUNNY HAIKU Just because most haiku poems are about seasons or nature doesn’t mean that’s all they can be about. If you want, you can even write funny haiku poems. One way to make a haiku funny is to have an unexpected last line. For example, if the last line says the opposite of what the reader expects, it becomes like the punchline of a joke. It also

My homework is late.

My dog ate it this morning.

I sure like my dog.

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helps to write about a funny subject.

Limerick

A limerick is a funny little poem containing five lines. It has a very distinctive rhythm and rhyme pattern.

Rhythm and Rhyme Pattern: o line one - 3 beats a o line two - 3 beats a o line three - 2 beats b o line four - 2 beats b o line five - 3 beats a

Getting Started

1. An easy way to get started is to pick a boy’s or girl’s name that has one syllable (like Bill, Tim, Dick, Sue, or Jill).

There once was a fellow (or young girl) named ____(pick an easy name with one syllable). We’ll pick ―Jill.‖ So the first line is:

“There once was a young girl named Jill.”

2. Now make a list of words that rhyme with the last word in the first line—in this case, Jill. Your list of rhyming words might include: hill, drill, pill, skill, bill, will, and ill.

3. Now write the second line using one of the rhyming words. Here’s an example:

“Who freaked at the sight of a drill.‖

4. Now think of an interesting story. What could happen to someone scared of a drill? Well, you might have an interesting story if Jill had to go to the dentist. Here’s what might happen in the third and fourth lines.

“She brushed every day.”

“So, her dentist would say,”

5. Now you need to go back to the list of ―A‖ rhyming words to find one that can end the poem. Here’s an example:

“Your teeth are quite perfect. No bill.‖

Example

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There was an Old Person of Chili, Whose conduct was painful and silly, He sat on the stairs, Eating apples and pears, That imprudent Old Person of Chili

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Concrete Poem

A concrete poem is a poem that forms a picture of the topic or follows the contours of a shape that is suggested by the topic.

I am

a very special

shape I have three points and

three lines straight. Look through my words

and you will see, the shape that I am meant to be. I'm just

not words caught in a tangle. Look close to see a small triangle. My angles

add to one hundred and eighty degrees, you learn this at school with your abc's. Practice your

maths and you will see, some other fine examples of me.

Getting Started

1. Choose a subject for your poem. What do you want to write about? Some possible themes

are love, nature, religion, and friendship.

2. Choose a shape for your poem. Once you have decided on the subject matter of your

poem, you will need to decide what image your text will be shaped into. Remember, the size

of the image will need to correspond to the length of the poem. If this is your first concrete

poem, it is a good idea to start small and use a simple shape.

3. Write your poem. On the first sheet of paper, write out your poem. Don't worry about the

shape yet; you want to focus on the words themselves at this point. It is helpful to be flexible

regarding where each line ends, because when you fit the poem to its shape these lines

might not fit properly.

4. Draw out the shape of your poem. On the second sheet of paper, draw the outline of the

shape you want your text to fit into. Make sure that the size of your shape matches the

length of your poem. You don't want to have to use extremely small or large letters to fit the

poem to shape. Make sure you draw the outline darkly, because you will need to see it

through another sheet of paper.

5. Write out the finished poem. Place the third sheet of paper over the sheet on which you've

drawn your shape. You should be able to see the shape through the paper; if you can't,

consider outlining it again in a black marker. Begin writing the text of your poem onto the

new sheet of paper, keeping all the words inside the shape's outline.

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6. Don't be afraid to revise the text of your poem during this process. You may decide that

certain words are too long to fit neatly within the shape, for example. You can treat this

sheet as a rough draft, and copy the final revised poem onto a new sheet of paper.

Acrostic

An acrostic is a poem in which the first letters of each line spell out a word or phrase. The word or phrase can be a name, a thing, or whatever you like. Usually, the first letter of each line is capitalized. This makes it easier to see the word spelled out vertically down the page. Acrostics are easy to write because they don’t need to rhyme, and you don’t need to worry about the rhythm of the lines. Each line can be as long or as short as you want it to be.

Getting Started

To create an acrostic, follow these five easy steps: 1. Choose a topic to write about. 2. Write your word down vertically. 3. List words or phrases that describe your idea. 4. Write words or phrases on the lines that begin with the same letters. 5. Provide appropriate lines to create a poem.

Example:

Storm:

S-trong and swift the wind blows

T-wirling and twisting delicate blooms

O-rchards strewn with fruits- ripe n' raw

R-ain and thunder snarl and growl

M-aking the sea suddenly shriek and howl.